THE KING'S MIRROR 147 



V 



met such a man, one who had seen and examined these 

 things, I should have been able to give you full informa- 

 tion about them. But I can at least tell you what those 

 men have conjectured who have formed the most rea-y 

 sonable opinions. 



The men who have written best concerning the nature j y 



of the earth, following the guidance of Isidore and other^ ^ 

 learned men,* state that there are certain zones on the f Qjf 

 heavens under which men cannot live. One is very hot 

 and, because of the glowing heat which burns every- 

 thing that comes beneath it, people cannot exist under 

 this zone. It seems reasonable that this is the broad path 

 of the sun, and I believe it is because this zone is per- 

 vaded with the sun's flaming rays that no one who 

 wishes only a moderately warm dwelling place can live 

 beneath it. These writers have also said concerning two 

 other zones in the sky that under them too the land is 

 uninhabitable; because, on account of their frigidity, it 

 is no more comfortable to dwell under them than under 

 the first mentioned where the heat is torrid. For there 

 the cold has developed such a power that water casts 

 aside its nature and turns into ice masses; in this way 

 all those lands become ice-cold, and the seas too, that 

 lie under either of these two zones. From this I conclude 

 that there are five zones in the heavens: two under 



* Isidore of Seville (d. 636) discusses the five zones in his Etymologiae, iii, c. 

 xliv; xiii, c. vi; and in his DeNatura Rerum, c. x. The editors of the Sorb edition 

 suggest that the " other learned men " may be Macrobius and Martianus 

 Capella, the famous encyclopedists of the fifth century (p. 195). But as these 

 writers preceded Isidore by nearly two centuries, it is unlikely that their 

 works were more than indirect sources for the scientific statements in the 

 Speculum Regale. It is more probable that the reference is to such writers as 

 Bede, Rabanus Maurus, and Honorius of Autun, though it is impossible to 

 specify what authority was followed. 



